Vanish Into the Witching Hour
by WastefulReverie
Summary: Danny finds that odd things tend to happen during the Witching Hour, the prime hour for paranormal activity. Twoshot for Ectober Week 2018.
1. The Witching Hour

**The Witching Hour**

 **Words: 4648**

* * *

Honestly, if Danny had to keep track of every little tiny thing he'd learned about the nature of paranormal entities since he became one himself, he'd have a very long and existential crisis inducing list. Most of it was little things, like holy water actually hurt him. It'd been a little crushing to learn that his entire existence wasn't worthy enough to be considered natural, that he was one of the 'evil' forces repelled by the will of good. Though, he does admit he expected it nonetheless; he was a ghost hybrid, so in the eye of nature, he was physically tainted, despite the fact that he had a strong loyalty to his moral compass. But again, that was only one of the small facts he'd learned from what it's like to be a part of the world of ghosts and unearthly creatures.

Ghost fights could occur any time of the day, but Danny often noticed that the night was much busier than the daytime for tedious invasions of the town. When he was new to ghost fighting, he assumed that it was much easier to use the portal unnoticed at night, since his parents were asleep and out of the lab. But as time went on Danny seemed to notice that ghosts were almost more... nocturnal? Even though they didn't sleep, it was like their natural clocks were prone to more activity during nighttime. He certainly had no trouble getting to sleep at night, seeing as he was always so _exhausted_ after a day of school and daytime ghost attacks, but he wondered if it weren't for his human social life keeping him diurnal, if he would be naturally nocturnal instead. He couldn't really spare any sleep, though, so it wasn't like he was extremely eager to test his theory out by completely destroying his already irregular sleep patterns.

After he came to that conclusion, he approached his next revelation about what really made ghosts more active at night. Over a period of a few weeks of constant night attacks, he started noticing something. The ghosts he fought at night were stronger than the ones he fought during the day, and he... was also stronger at night. It had taken him a while to figure it out, since he hadn't really noticed that his opponents were stronger and he also had enhanced strength during those hours, but once he realized it, he couldn't ignore the sensation of strength that he acquired at night. It was weird – how much more refreshed and energized he felt at night, like his body had gotten some kind of natural power-up. And once he recognized that sensation, he realized that it didn't happen during the entire night – it only occurred between certain hours. He started keeping track of specific times and decided that it only happened between 3 and 4 AM, the most popular hour for attacks. Of course, none of it was a coincidence.

"Literally anybody could've told you that, Danny," Sam rolled her eyes. They were sitting in her basement, and Danny had randomly brought it up after thinking about it for a few days. "The Witching Hour is common knowledge."

"You're a goth encyclopedia," Tucker argued. "You know everything when it comes to paranormal lore."

"I mean, I knew about the Witching Hour," Danny said, "but I didn't really realize that it was a thing that affected ghosts, and me."

"Well at this point," Tucker started, "I'm sure we can assume that every myth throughout history is real, so are you really surprised?"

"Good point," Danny shrugged. "I mean, not really, anyway."

So, the three of them brushed it off, since it wasn't really significant for anything. They spent the rest of that night watching scary movies, before Danny had to fly Tucker and himself home.

It was a few weeks after that when Danny realized that the Witching Hour had a much more thorough grasp on him than he had initially thought.

* * *

Jazz pulled all-nighters a lot. Sometimes even on school nights, which resulted in a considerable coffee demand until she could come home and take a well deserved nap. So there she was, dull red eyes staring into her computer screen, almost completely in the dark, typing up another essay for college applications. She'd lost track of time, and since it was the weekend, she couldn't really find the mind to care very much. She just couldn't stop typing, because she would lose her momentary vision for the essay. The words were in her head _now_ , and she had to transcribe them somewhere, before she inevitably forgot them in the void of sleep.

She wouldn't stop typing until this was completely finished. She was determined that she would not comply to sleep, sleep would comply to her.

'I've found with experience that this is...' Jazz paused. What was the word? 'Important'? _No_ , she decided, _that word is too vague._ _Maybe the words 'vital' or 'crucial'?_ She pondered each of them, and decided on the word 'vital'. '...this is vital to my formation as an exemplary student' _No. Rewrite that._ '…this is vital to my outstanding high school career, and that without it I could have never accomplished my current...' She was stuck again. _Why do words have to be so complicated?_ she lamented, almost deciding to give it up and go to sleep before she passed out face down on the keyboard again.

But she resisted the temptation, opting to continue writing instead, though within minutes, she found that her mind was slowly delving into the thrall of unconsciousness, and she was starting to lose the battle against the irrepressible force. Darkness seemed to subtly drip within the words on her computer screen, causing the pixelated text to blur into formless black shapes. Her eyes became dull and her sense of focus was compromised, and her eyelids began to droop with finality.

She wasn't even aware that she was slipping away.

The keyboard didn't even feel uncomfortable when she blindly laid her head on it.

Her mind wasn't present, and her eyes were open by a sliver, but the sudden movement in her peripheral vision unnerved her, causing her heart to adopt an alarming tempo. She felt the invasive sensation of air being vacuumed out of her lungs, and consequently fell out of her chair when she attempted to sit upright. Her forehead met the carpet with a vengeance, and she was left reeling, scouring the darkness for what had startled her out of her near sleep. She pulled herself up once again, and glimpsed motion beyond her doorway, causing her heart-rate to escalate for a second time.

Her groggy brain lagged as it failed to comprehend the sight before her; a suspended figure, arms slack beside it, hovering as if it was being held in the air by a noose descending from the ceiling. It felt like some kind of surreal nightmare, and she probably would've believed it was just that, except that something in her head finally clicked into place, and the figure in the air was suddenly familiarly haunting. He was in human form, and his eyes were closed, and his face showed no hints of awareness as he floated slowly, as if his body had it's own awareness. Even though he was currently Fenton, his skin gave off a faint unnatural glow, which was only visible in the utter blackness of Jazz's bedroom. The light from his skin cast dark shadows, creating jagged blotches of darkness around his eyes and nose, which accented the barely visible green tint moving behind his shut eyelids.

She was used to watching Danny exhibit his powers, but seeing him so... lifeless, was unnerving. It sent pangs of fear within her, and if she hadn't been so sapped of her energy, she might have just scurried backwards along her floor until she was against the opposite wall, her knees buried in her chest. She remained where she was instead, opting to just gape in silent fixation.

But then, Danny disappeared from her field of vision, surpassing the space in front of her bedroom door, continuing his path down the hallway. It took her a few moments after that to disregard the eeriness clinging to her weary nerves. And it was like she had awoken from a trance. Her mind began to function properly again (as proper as it could in the wee hours of the night), she began asking the appropriate questions regarding the situation. For instance, _why_ Danny was floating down the hallway, seemingly asleep, but conscious enough to use his powers without realizing it? If anything, Danny had exclusively told her that hovering in human form was uncomfortable, that his ghost form was much more equipped for defying gravity, so why was this the power that decided to manifest in his sleep?

It was almost like he was... sleepwalking. But that's not what this could be, right? Danny had never sleepwalked as a child, she was sure of it, so that meant that this had to be a recent development. So _was_ he ghost sleepwalking/hovering? That's sure what it looked like, because when he had passed by her bedroom door, Danny was not there; he was definitely somewhere else, dreaming.

Since it appeared that he was asleep, Jazz wasn't keen on waking her brother up, but it wasn't like she could risk having him float out the front door and out into the street in the middle of the night, in human form, nonetheless. She had to wake him up and send him to bed so he could sleep uninterrupted.

She pulled herself off of the floor, her legs wobbling beneath her, and she tried to compose herself as she strode into the hallway. Danny was now making his way down the stairs, descending slowly over the steps, maintaining his levitation and never touching them. Shivers caressed her spine again, watching as Danny absently glided through the air with an otherworldly presence that he usually concealed with his liveliness; Phantom never unnerved her because she was always reassured that he was Danny, zoetic and aware of the world around him. But now his human quirks, what attested his earthly sentience, was absent, and all that remained was the uncanny eeriness within him.

She followed him to the bottom of the stairs. Once he had established himself above level flooring, she took a harrowing breath and cautiously reached out to touch his shoulder. She wasn't too surprised when his skin was cold to the touch, but she was concerned that his temperature was lower than usual in human form. She gripped her hand into his shoulder as his body continued to follow its nonexistent path throughout the house. And then, he suddenly ceased floating and collapsed into a hyperventilating heap on the floor, similar to what Jazz had experienced when she had first seen him outside of her bedroom. He didn't notice her at first, and instinctively held up a fiery green fist while he attempted to maintain his erratic breathing.

"Danny," she said softly. At the sound of her voice, ethereal green eyes decimated her where she stood, and she nearly flinched at the malice in his defensive glare. Danny realized quickly that it was only Jazz and let his hand extinguish immediately, chastising his fight or flight response for almost accidentally pulverizing his sister. He was still on the floor, and his shallow breathing had already modulated into a regular pace.

"How'd I get here?" he looked up at Jazz, confusion evident in his unceasing green eyes. Instantly, her irrational dread vanished; the haunting version of Danny retired behind his usual human awareness. There was emotion in his expression, in his voice, and he was there – not just an empty vessel floating aimlessly through the house.

"You were sleepwalking," she explained. "Uh – well, technically sleepfloating? Levitating, I guess. Scared the crap out of me so I thought I'd wake you up in case something happened."

Danny stared at her blankly. Her words took a moment to process, but when they did he was incredulous. "Sleepwalking? I – I've never done that before, though."

"I know," she said, remembering her initial doubts. "It was really weird. Since you were using your powers – I didn't even know you could do that in your _sleep_ – do you think it was a ghost thing?"

…

"Maybe?" he yawned. She could see the wheels in his head attempt to turn and just give up. It was too late to truly think about it, or too early, and now that this was over they both needed to go back to sleep.

"Let's go to bed," she said. She suspected that he probably would've crashed right there if she hadn't suggested it fast enough.

They started walking back up the stairs. "What time is it anyway?" he muttered.

"Maybe like fifteen 'til four," she guessed without thought.

He paused. "So like 3:45?"

"Mm... yeah?"

"I got an idea what this is, maybe," he said. "I'll tell you in the morning, though."

She didn't object. She was kinda too tired to care at this point. "Alright. Goodnight, Danny."

"Goodnight, Jazz."

They both fell asleep, and neither of them moved until late the next morning.

* * *

Jack and Maddie were unimpressed at the usual exhibit of teenage laziness, but let them sleep late, regardless. It wasn't until about 11 AM that both of them had ventured downstairs for some breakfast (more appropriately brunch now) and recalled the strange occurrence the night before. Danny, as he promised, explained his theory to Jazz. He told her about the inexplicable increase in ghost activity during the Witching Hour and how he had eventually realized that he was stronger during that time-frame.

"Wait, so you think that the ghostly paradigm during that time of night is causing you to use your powers in your sleep? Not just using them, but making you _sleepwalk_." She sounded skeptical, but it was apparent she was intrigued by the idea.

He shrugged, "Weirder things have happened."

And with an inappropriate lack of concern, they moved on, not thinking too much about it, since it was easier for both of them that way. It wasn't until the next incident that Danny actually considered that his unconscious haunting was more than just an odd, single occurrence.

* * *

Back in middle school, sleepovers with Tucker used to stretch far into the morning, typically concluding their crazy video game nights with a sunrise. Now that they were in high school, exhausted from homework and the responsibility of being a superhero, their rare sleepovers usually expired sometime before midnight. Tucker would sleep on the bed while Danny would roll out a sleeping bag, which was also different from when they were younger. Tucker used to sleep on his own sleeping bag next to Danny, but now that they were older, Danny insisted that Tucker got a good night's rest in his own bed. ( _"I'm half-dead, I sleep like it too, so don't worry."_ )

So there they were, after a long week of school drama, hopeless assignments that neither one of them could expect to complete, and more strenuous ghost fights, Tucker on the bed and Danny in the floor. There wasn't much discussion before they passed out, and they each promptly hit the hay after a few seconds. The room was still and quiet, with the intermittent hum of the heater turning on and off to warm the fresh autumn chill in the air. Simultaneously, the numbers on Tucker's digital clock rose and rose, plummeting after midnight, and continued to climb again into the morning hours of the night.

Neither of the boys were aware of the transition between 2:59 and 3 AM, but there was definitely some sort of supernatural liminality that occurred. The clock fell from fifty-nine to zero, and rose from two to three. Something in the air shifted, something cold, even though the heater was still running, and something... restless filled the room. There was an atmosphere of heaviness, an indescribable ambiance churning in the shadows. If anything, the energy in the room was akin to the poise of power, feeding off the darkness, growing. It was unnatural.

There was no build-up, no anticipation. It simply happened. The insubstantial energy in the room (it wasn't just in the room, it occupied the _moment_ ) flexed and twisted, growing heavy around Danny's core. It left him as he was, asleep, and his body was animated, almost like a marionette. His skin adopted a translucent glow, a light only faint enough to be seen in complete darkness, but unwaveringly present. In the same instance, his body sensed an obstacle – _the sleeping bag still had him trapped_ – and automatically phased through it. His rhetorical strings were pulled upwards, and he was instantly vertical, afloat in midair.

Now that he was hovering, his body naturally leaned into the movement of flying, a dormant action, which was inexplicably guided by some unconscious knowledge of the location of his surroundings. He moved across the room, towards Tucker's window, somehow avoiding crashing into a tall shelf.

The dim light his skin emitted was enough to gradually wake Tucker from his sleep. The black boy stared across his room, seeing the blurry outline of a figure in white hovering around his room. Petrified, he didn't make a sound, squinting in utter confusion since his unaided vision was downright awful. Eventually, Tucker's muddled brain collected the courage to reach for his glasses, and pressed them to his face slowly. When he reexamined the floating figure in his room, he choked out in disbelief.

"What the fuck, Danny?" he sputtered.

It was when Danny's eyes frantically shot open, causing him to unceremoniously fall to the floor, that Tucker realized that his friend might have not been flying around his room like a creep _intentionally._

"Wha-?" Danny exclaimed. He pulled himself up, and looked towards Tucker for an explanation. His green eyes were the primary highlight of his current appearance, and his skin hadn't ceased glowing. Tucker was initially taken aback, since usually Danny only glowed and had green eyes in ghost-form.

"Dude, you were like floating in your sleep, going all around the room and stuff and I couldn't see you at first, creeped me out, _God_ ," he blurted in a single breath.

Danny blankly processed his words, "Really?"

"Uh-huh. Yeah," Tucker confirmed.

Danny didn't seem to hear him, and looked down questioningly. "Again?"

Tucker barely heard it, and found himself concerned. "What?"

Danny showed no indication that he had heard Tucker and bit his lip curiously. "What time is it?" he asked, instead of responding.

"What do you mean 'again', Danny?" Tucker didn't have the patience to play games.

Once again, Danny ignored him, and moved to the other side of Tucker's bed so he could get a clear view of the lamp-like digital clock. Besides Danny, it was the only thing that was currently providing light to the room. It read 3:13 with a haunting sort of elegance.

Danny's jaw dropped to resemble a sort of "oohhh" expression, and Tucker continued to glare at him interrogatively.

"What's going on, Danny?"

The ghost boy's eyes darted between the clock and his friend. He decisively sat on the edge of Tucker's bed and started to explain.

"Remember what I was saying about the Witching Hour making me stronger? Well a few nights ago Jazz found me sleepflying and we sort of decided that it was an extension of that. For some reason my powers kind of turned on without me doing anything. I hadn't realized that it would be happening more than once, though, I just thought it was a glitch..."

"Wait, so some paranormal force in between 3 and 4 AM can basically make you sleepfly? Why though? Because it's creepy or something? Cause it was creepy to me, man. No offense, but when you're asleep, you look really, like... dead. I mean actually like the scary kind of dead you see in horror movies. Absolutely terrifying." Tucker froze, realizing that he'd said a little too much. "Oh God, I didn't mean for it to sound like that, I'm sorry dude. You know that-"

Danny gave an ironic laugh, "It's fine, Tucker. I'm a ghost, how can I be offended by the fact that I look _dead_?"

"True, I guess," he admitted. "So, does this happen some nights, or is it every night and you've just now noticed it? Oh, and if it's only some nights, then why not every night?"

"I think it's only some nights. I don't know why some nights are different than others. I know I'm awake a lot at 3 AM, but not always, so I don't know what determines if I sleepfly or not."

Tucker put his hand under his head in thought, "So you don't know a way to prevent it, then?"

"If I can't predict it, then I can't really prevent it," he replied. "So, nope. But to be honest, I don't know if there's a point to preventing it – it's not really harmful, and it's beyond our control, so it's just another thing that I've decided to let go for now, unless it becomes relevant."

Tucker realized that he was right. If Danny sleepflew around his house for less than an hour while everyone was sleeping, it wasn't really dangerous for anybody. He voiced his agreement, and the two boys simultaneously expressed their wish to go back to sleep. Danny returned to his discarded sleeping-bag, and Tucker surrendered his glasses for the night, burying himself underneath his blankets again.

Their breathing evened as their minds entered a secure tranquility, and the numbers on the clock continued to rise...

* * *

It was about a month or so later when Danny was awakened during one of his sleepflying excursions for the third time. He'd been somewhat aware of some nights that it occurred, because every once in a while he would notice that he'd wake up on top of his covers instead of underneath. He never pondered it much, and usually forgot about it after a few minutes of his daily routine.

That particular night was a nice one for Danny. He got all of his homework done for once, he had managed to stick three ghosts back into the Ghost Zone, and somehow fell asleep _before_ midnight. It was honestly too good to be true, which probably explains why his luck turned sour later on. But in the moment, he was grateful for his momentary break.

Elsewhere within FentonWorks, Maddie meticulously cared for Jack, who had caught the flu at an unfortunate time; they were so close to completing one of their latest projects when he had spontaneously grown ill. At first, both scientists were convinced that Jack's sickness was the scheme of ghosts, and had dragged the Fenton Ghost Catcher out of storage so they could purge all of the ghost energy supposedly contaminating his body. However, Jazz (who had been seriously unimpressed) talked down to them and reminded them of their last attempt at using the Ghost Catcher to cure their sickness. They had camped in a tent by the Ghost Catcher for about two weeks expecting their sickness to go away, when in reality, the only thing that alleviated their flu was over-the-counter medication and ample rest.

So, reluctantly, Jack agreed to combat his sickness 'the normal way' and rest in bed with medicine until he got better. It was only the second night, and even though he was improving, he wasn't in a good condition. The only thing he could eat without throwing up were crackers, the bedroom had to be kept boiling hot at all times, and he had already gone through two boxes of Kleenex. Even though she wanted to be by Jack's side at all times, Maddie couldn't bring herself to sleep in a room so hot. She had tossed and turned and sweated nonstop the previous night, and was not willing to repeat that experience. So instead, she discretely snuck downstairs to sleep on the couch. It wasn't a pullout, so it wasn't as nearly as comfortable, but with a good pillow, it was so much more tolerable than the sauna upstairs.

Somewhere past 2 AM she woke up, and went upstairs to check on Jack for a few minutes. He was sound asleep, but she noticed that the glass of water on his night-stand was empty. She figured that he'd been waking up and falling asleep intermittently, as one usually does when they have a fever, so she decided that she'd refill his water for the next time he woke. She quietly trekked downstairs, being extra careful not to step on the extremely loud floorboards. It was a school night and she couldn't afford to be responsible for her children not getting sufficient sleep.

She reached the kitchen, and used the filtered tap on the fridge to fill up Jack's glass. She walked back upstairs and placed the cup where she found it, making sure not to cause any disturbance. Satisfied, she left the room and habitually closed the door behind her. It made an audible squeaking sound and she cringed at the sound, hoping that it'd been quiet enough not to wake Jack.

"Mads?"

 _Damn_ , she'd woken him. She peeked back through the door, and saw her weary husband looking at her expectantly.

"I – My head is hurting again."

"I'll get you some Ibuprofen, sweetie," she whispered, making a second trip to the kitchen and back. She returned with two of the pills, and double-checked the time. It was nearly 3 AM now, so it was safe for him to take another dose. She put them in his hand, and watched him attempt to swallow them while laying down, too worn to try and sit up.

"Thanks, Mads," he muttered, finally swallowing the pills.

Normally she would've kissed him, but she was hesitant, in case she caught his sickness. "Go back to sleep," she smiled.

He didn't reply. She wandered back downstairs, definitely ready to return to sleep herself. But before she could carelessly flop onto the couch, however, she was paralyzed.

She wasn't literally frozen, but... there was some kind of intangible fear clouding her intuition, petrifying her, turning her sense of reason into molasses. She was at the edge of the living room, and it was like her mind just... stopped processing.

And then, the merciless paralyzation dissipated, releasing Maddie from her disorientation, allowing her to comprehend the sight before her. Her heart immediately drummed with an insistent urgency in her ears when she realized _what_ exactly she was looking at. In the center of the room, above the coffee table, there was a figure, shrouded in unearthly white light, suspended in the air like a silent, menacing wraith, awaiting her arrival. She couldn't decipher many of it's features, but she could see that it was small in stature for a humanoid ghost, which oddly incited more inexplicable terror within her.

With her composure forfeited, Maddie gave little thought to her actions, and she was screaming before she even realized that the sound had left her lips. Her scream not only startled herself, but it also caused the floating figure to fall out of the air.

The specter crumpled to the floor helplessly, and Maddie reflexively took a step back, hoping to find protection in the kitchen. But before she could flee, her eye caught something, something much more horrifying than the ghostly invader in her living room. Because she could see the fallen figure's identity now, and she could see his frightened green eyes staring up at her.

She could see that Danny (her _son_ ) was afraid of her. And she could see that something was very, _very_ wrong with him.

* * *

 **Alright, originally I was going to put all of my Ectober entries into one story, buuutt some of them go really long, so I'm just posting them all separately. However, the first two days ran together so this is a two-parter and will be continued in Disappearance. All other entries will be standalones. I encourage you guys to check out my other Ectober stories! I'm going to try to do as many as I can if not all of them.  
**


	2. Disappearance

**Disappearance**

 **Words: 4994**

Danny was _glowing_ , she realized, with an observation that was growing more horrendous with every second. His knees were digging into the carpet below him, arms flaccid at his side, and there was an expression of confusion and fear glued to his face. Maddie couldn't decide if she wanted to run from him, or crowd him with her maternal vigilance. She didn't have to make the choice, however, because he spoke first.

"Mom?" his alien green eyes seemed to pierce through her like a blade, "What... happened?"

Those weren't the eyes of her son. She wasn't even positive that those were the words of her son. And the explanation was simple: he was overshadowed by a ghost. Some nasty specter had overtaken her baby boy and was now playing with the wheel, tainting him with ectoplasm and causing his entire body to be used as some kind of ghostly lamp. As a mother, she felt disgusted, and wanted nothing more than to destroy the thing inhabiting her son.

"Danny," she said his name with a bad taste in her mouth. (That was not Danny.) "You just fell. You – you need to come down to the lab with me, right now."

Those soulless green eyes mimicked befuddlement. "I fell?" he asked. "What are you talking about? W – why the lab? I feel okay."

"We just need to go to the lab," Maddie insisted. Because there she could save her son and get that _thing_ out of his body.

"No," he said. "There's no reason to."

She was getting frustrated. Clearly this ghost knew that she was a ghost hunter, and that the lab meant an inevitable doom for ghosts. She wouldn't be able to deceive it into entering the lab, so she would have to force it. And to do that, she'd have to shatter it's little act.

She took a step towards it and said with minimal hesitation, "There's a reason to when you're possessing my son, ghost."

She felt something stab her in the gut when she saw the look of immediate hurt on Danny's face. It was raw, forlorn trepidation; his eyes dulled, the corners of his mouth quivered, and for a moment it almost seemed like he was trembling. Maddie couldn't let this affect her, because even though it was eminently convincing, that was _not_ Danny. That was an ectoplasmic entity, extremely adept at acting, residing in his skin.

"No," he whispered. "Not again."

"I see through you," she continued. "And I am _not_ letting you stay in Danny."

Maddie reached out to grab his arm, and he flinched away, taking a few steps backward. The action was almost redundant for a ghost, but Maddie was grateful that it wasn't running away with Danny's body.

"I – I'm not going to the lab," he repeated. "I know how this nightmare ends. I don't want to do it again. I've had it too... too many times..."

Whatever the ghost was saying didn't make sense. Was he trying to convince her that she was in a dream? Or was he pretending that _he_ was in a dream? Ghosts certainly couldn't dream, nor sleep, so that meant that it was still trying to imitate Danny.

"I don't want to be your experiment again. I wanna wake up. _Please_ let me wake up, Mom." The look in those fiery green eyes was desperate. _It's a facade_ , she reminded herself.

"I know you're not Danny," she confirmed. "You can't fool me. You're just a ghost, pretending. If you don't leave Danny right now, I will _make_ you leave."

He took another two steps back, strategically putting more distance between the two of them. "Please, Mom... I wanted to tell you. I want to tell you so much, please don't do this to me. I don't want to be ripped apart again." She was taken aback when tears obviously welled around the corner of his eyes. The ghost must have a very deep connection to Danny's body if it's able to provoke crying. She had to sever that connection before it permanently harmed Danny. "I don't want to be ripped apart again."

The fake crying was finally what set her off. Maddie was done trying to negotiate with this _thing_. It was cruel, and it had the very audacity to use _her_ son's body as a flesh puppet, only to act like _she_ was the perpetrator, trying to make her believe that _she_ was the one hurting her son. "Stop pretending to be my son!" she screamed.

He flinched away from her, feigning more false tears. "Can't I just wake up this time?"

There was a scuffling noise behind her, and Maddie turned defensively, ready to fight. Maybe it was a second ghost, maybe the ghost overshadowing Danny was just supposed to be a distraction! She kept an eye on Danny while she maintained a resistive stance towards the direction of the noise.

A new figure emerged from the darkness, descending from the stairs. Thankfully, Maddie took no time at all identifying her daughter's frantic sprint, and stopped herself before she kicked Jazz in the chest.

"Mom," Jazz breathed, weakly. Maddie realized she must have scrambled out of bed and ran down the stairs. "I heard screaming-"

Jazz's eyes curiously fell on Danny, who's green gaze was strewn with barely luminescent tears. He held his arms close to his chest and was breathing heavily, like air was a burden to him. Maddie watched in wonderment as Jazz's mouth fell open, establishing a firm determination in the young girl's stare. When Jazz walked past Maddie, opting to go towards Danny, Maddie was stupefied.

"Jazz, your brother is being overshadowed!" she warned. However, Jazz didn't seem to acknowledge that nor care. Instead, she approached Danny and comfortingly put an arm around him.

 _What...?_

The ghost whispered something to Jazz, and Maddie swore she heard the word 'experiment'.

Jazz looked at Maddie coldly. "Mom," she started, "how much do you know? What did you say to him?"

Why was Jazz humoring the ghost? Anybody could clearly see that Danny was overshadowed, so why was Jazz playing into it's hand? And why did Jazz look so... bitter towards Maddie?

Nonetheless, Maddie found herself answering her daughter honestly. "I – Danny's overshadowed by a ghost. At first it was just floating in the living room until I came down here, and now it's pretending that he's Danny in some sort of nightmare or something. I just, I'm trying to get it down to the lab for tests so I can get it _out_ of Danny."

"Nightmare?" Jazz repeated quietly. Maddie could almost see the cogs turning in Jazz's head as she reached some sort of enlightenment, prompting her to turn to the ghost. "Danny, look at me," she said, softly. "It's Jazz. Everything's okay. You're not in a dream, you're awake. You were sleepflying again and mom saw you. This is all a misunderstanding, everything is alright. No one is going to experiment on you."

Danny blinked the tears out of his eyes and looked at Jazz in shock. "What? This is actually happening? Jazz?"

The ghost had fooled Jazz. It was stringing her along, and despite Maddie's warning, Jazz was falling for every single move. She couldn't let that happen, she couldn't lose her daughter too.

"Jazz, get away from that ghost! It's using you!" she interrupted.

"This isn't a ghost, Mom!" Jazz argued. "This is Danny! He isn't overshadowed!"

"How do you know?" Maddie asked. None of this was making any sense.

"I just _do_ ," Jazz said. "Look, this is Danny, and not some ghost. All the stuff you saw him do was him, not anything controlling him. Isn't that right?"

"Yeah," Danny added, clearly too frightened to elaborate further.

"That – that's a lie," Maddie decided. "People can't just _float_ , Jasmine! I'm not an idiot."

"People can't float, maybe, but ectoplasm can change a lot about an individual's capabilities," Jazz said.

Was she saying that Danny... was contaminated? He wasn't overshadowed, but his body was tainted by himself?

"Are you saying that Danny's been poisoned by ectopl _asm_?" Maddie heard her voice crack and almost flinched.

"Look, Mom," Jazz said quickly. "Danny hasn't been poisoned. Not overshadowed, not corrupted or anything. He's himself, and if there's a little ectoplasm in there, then – then it's a healthy amount. No need for _any_ tests. You just gotta trust me Mom, okay? I promise that we've already made sure it can't hurt him, and that I monitor his mental state like a _hawk_. Can you just trust us and leave this alone for now? Please?"

"I'm _fine_ ," Danny added.

They were making up lies, Maddie realized. There was something deeper here that they were attempting to cover up. There was something wrong with Danny, and both of her children were saying as much as they could to appease Maddie into a false security and to persuade her not to ask any questions. They were deliberately avoiding a confrontation in the lab, which suggested that medically, there was something that they didn't want Maddie to know about Danny. And it had something to do with ectoplasm and ghosts. Whatever was wrong with Danny, it gave him ghostly attributes, and that wasn't alright. She _had_ to know what was going on with her children.

Maddie clenched her fist against her side, "I want the truth, now. Immediately, or I swear I will drag you down to the lab and find out myself, Daniel Fenton."

Danny and Jazz looked at each other, sharing some kind of reluctant decision between them. She could see the vulnerability between her children, and the depth of their silent conversation did nothing to reassure Maddie's worries.

Jazz took a deep breath. "Danny has ghost powers," she said with an unclouded finality. "The portal accident-" she recalled the incident, remembered Danny's skittishness and Sam and Tucker's assurances that everyone was _okay_ , remembered how her scientific eagerness outweighed her parental concern,"-bonded ectoplasm to his DNA. It's not harming him, though, and we've figured out that getting rid of it would definitely kill him."

Danny was slowly nodding, but Maddie couldn't bring herself to consider Jazz's words. Ectoplasm... bonded _to_ him? There were many reasons why that should be impossible, since ectoplasm is, but not limited to: radioactive, toxic, and pretty much the anti-matter of all life. Beyond the theoretical realm, it would never be able to bond with someone's DNA without downright killing them first. Years ago, Maddie herself had conducted many different experiments examining that hypothesis, and she had determined that ectoplasm was incompatible with all forms of cellular life. Vlad Masters was living proof for crying out loud! He suffered for years in the hospital after he was poisoned with ectoplasm, and now Danny and Jazz were trying to convince her that Danny was the exception? _No_ , no she wouldn't fall for that.

"Ectoplasm can't coexist with living tissue," she told them firmly.

Jazz continued to hold her arm around Danny, "It can, given the right... conditions."

"No," Maddie reiterated. "Ectoplasm can't bond with DNA because they're basically the opposite of each other. Humans can't have powers. The only way you'd have ectoplasm in you would be if you're contaminated or you're a ghost. And you're not a ghost, Danny."

When she said the words, she didn't expect the reaction she got. Instead of another argument or half-explanation, Danny visibly swallowed and averted direct eye contact. Jazz acted in a similar manner, unable to bring herself to look Maddie in the eyes.

Maddie's mouth felt dry. "Danny?"

His answer was quiet, almost shameful, but he at least managed to look up. "I'm... part ghost," the words sounded wrong coming from her teenage son, and she almost convinced herself that they were a figment of her imagination. "I'm still alive, I have functional organs, warm blood, and human brain, but I can... _turn_ ," he said the word distastefully, as if he wasn't used to utilizing such a term, "to be like a - a ghost. My human and ghost sides overlap a lot, which is why my eyes are-" he gestured to his green eyes, "-like this, right now. Well, I mean normally I can control them, but at 3 AM it's hard to explain."

"You're not a ghost though," she said, simply. She couldn't... this wasn't making sense. At first they were saying it was just ectoplasm in his DNA, now they were expecting her to believe that Danny was some sort of what – a human-ghost hybrid? Alive but with some kind of permanent ghost attributes? It wasn't sensible, wasn't known, wasn't – wasn't-

"That's what I said, I'm part ghost. Not full," the way that he said it suggested that admitting this was almost painful for him. "I have the abilities of a ghost."

To be a ghost, but not completely dead? It was unorthodox, it was a preposterous idea, akin to something from science-fiction.

She clung to denial. "That can't be-"

"It's true, Mom," Jazz interjected. "You saw him floating."

She _had_ seen him floating. And even now, his eyes reflected that eerie green haze. There had to be some other explanation, because she would by no means accept that her son was part ghost. Theoretically, the implications of being alive and dead in a single existence were terrifying, unknown and messy. She didn't want that kind of misery for Danny, she had to ensure that Danny _wasn't_ part ghost, she had to achieve some conclusive source of evidence, and that meant...

"Let me run tests," she said.

"No," Danny said immediately, "no tests."

"You definitely have ectoplasm in you, Danny," she said. "You say you're 'part ghost', and that scares me. I have to find if you're right, and if so... I can't let you be that, I have to fix it."

"Wha – what do you mean 'fix', Mom?" Danny's voice wavered. "There's no fixing this, we've... we've tried and getting rid of it will kill me!"

"I'm an ectologist, I'm pretty sure if anyone can fix it, I can," she insisted. "Go down to the lab."

"No, Mom! I'm this way, whether you like it or not! Don't you get it? What happened did happen, and I'm stuck like this for the rest of my life. I'm okay with it, I have to be, because there's no other option. I'm not going to be yo – your _lab rat_ just to prove you wrong."

"You don't know everything," Maddie spat. "You are fifteen, Daniel. You're not the one who makes these decisions."

"I've dealt with this for the past year, so I'm confident that I definitely know more about what I am than you. I get that you're having troubling understanding it, we can talk it out, but that doesn't mean that you have to experiment on me-"

"I never said experiment!"

"It always comes back to experiments," Danny accused. "Especially with _ghosts_. I'm almost one, so don't you think I'm a little justified to be hesitant?"

Maddie's eyes glassed over. "Don't you dare say that," she demanded.

Now Danny was confused. "Say what?"

"You're not almost a ghost," Maddie whispered. "You're Danny. You have ectoplasm in you, but you're not almost... almost-"

"That's what this is all about, isn't it?" Jazz summed up. "You can't handle that he's part ghost. You want to run tests, and if Danny's too ghostly, you're going to try and 'fix' him. Because even being part ghost is too much for you to bear."

"And can you blame me?" Maddie blurted. "I can't let my son be like that, like – like a ghost!"

"And what if you can't fix me?" he muttered. "What if you try everything and still can't?

"I won't let that happen. My son will _not_ be a ghost." She gripped Danny's arm, once again trying to direct them to the lab. She pulled on him, but despite her tight grip, he wouldn't budge an inch. She was so absorbed in this movement that she missed the look of fear cross across Danny's face, and almost missed seeing him vanish into the air, seconds after he slipped intangibly through her grip. Disappearing.

Jazz was the first to react, "Danny!"

Maddie's mind reeled at the unexpected disappearance, struggling to process what had just happened. "Wha-?" One moment Danny had been there, in her grip, and the next moment he was just gone! For the life of her, she couldn't piece together how that had happened. She wondered, was that... was that one of the ghost powers that Danny had mentioned? (But those powers still couldn't be real!)

"We have to fin him," Jazz didn't allow much time for Maddie to dwell on her panicked realizations. She noticed that Jazz was also on edge, that she also hadn't actually expected Danny to straight up fade into thin air.

"What do yo mean find him?" Jazz was talking like Danny had gone somewhere, like he had walked away. But he had completely _disappeared_. Despite her usual tactful reasoning skills, Maddie still couldn't understand most of this. "What happened?"

Jazz shot her an incredulous look, as if she should know the answer by now. This was all new territory for Maddie. Ghosts... ectoplasm... part-ghosts... refusing to go to the lab... powers... So much had happened in just the past five minutes – how was she supposed to keep up?

"He used his powers to leave," Jazz confirmed Maddie's dismissed suspicions. She looked over Maddie and decided something, And on second thought, I should be the one to look for him since he trusts me more. That and you still don't know about..." she trailed off again, before blinking rapidly and forcing herself to continue. "Alright, you stay here. If I don't return by sunrise, go to Sam and Tucker for help."

She was slowly bringing herself to more conclusions, and this was starting to spiral out of control too quickly. "Jazz!" she protested as her daughter started to trek back upstairs, presumably to get something to aid her in her search. "That's crazy! You can't just go out in the middle of the night-"

"Well too bad," Jazz shot back, putting the banister between her and Maddie. "I have to, because _you_ scared my brother out there." She didn't look back down as she practically sprang up the stairs. "Not going after him would be crazy. Protecting him is my responsibility, after all."

Her words were simple, but she could hear the undertone of venom laced within Jazz's explanation. She disappeared up into her bedroom, and Maddie was left alone and astounded at the turn of events. Everything from the moment she saw Danny floating... to Jazz revealing that Danny had powers... to his reluctant admittance that he was part ghost... and to the moment she went too far, when she crossed the line of what Danny was apparently comfortable with. She still didn't want to believe that he was part ghost, she couldn't wrap her mind around it. But his disappearance... it was gradually assisting in convincing her.

That, and Jazz's harsh words still reverberated in her mind. _Protecting him is my responsibility_. Those words hurt the most; she was Danny's mother, she was supposed to be the one to protect both of her children, and from what she could see, she had failed. What mattered was that Danny had been tainted by ectoplasm, hurt by the nature of ghosts... no. _Her_ invention, the Fenton Portal, was the thing that irreversibly imbued him with ectoplasm, and by his claims, he was unable to be fixed. And by that logic, since it had been her invention and lack of supervision, it was her fault. She had created the circumstances for what he was, some sort of in-between anomaly.

( _No! What was she saying! Danny still isn't part ghost!_ )

She was still denying it, over and over, and she needed to conquer her denial. Even though she couldn't prove it in the sanctity of her lab, she had to trust that Danny and Jazz were telling the truth. And that's all that mattered now, because she had screwed everything up.

She was the one who told him that she wouldn't allow him to be part-ghost, which was what she unknowingly made him into. She was jagged and cruel and Danny was justified to use his... abilities to run from her. He was right to be afraid of her. Hell, she realized now, that when he had awoken, he had been convinced he was in a recurring nightmare. And his nightmare was her, he had begged her not make him her experiment again. He must have been bearing this burden and harboring this fear for how long and she just... rejected him? ( _It's common sense that you don't want your children to be part ghost, though! Fixing him is the easiest solution!_ )

Tears were welling in her eyes, and she didn't have enough awareness to blink them away. As if on autopilot, she slowly dragged herself back to the couch, and plopped down on it haphazardly. She placed her head on her knees, trying to condense her body to occupy as little space as possible. The question echoed over and over throughout her head as she cried into nothingness.

 _What had... what had she done?_

Jazz found the Booomerang discarded in a spare drawer, threw it in the air, and followed it's trajectory. Instead of leading her outside though, it lead her to the Fenton Portal first, meaning that in order to follow it, she had to quickly start up the Specter Speeder without any preparation. She'd only flown it a handful of times, and at times the controls were frustrating, but it was operable nonetheless. She tracked the Booomerang through the portal and let it lead her to Danny, who had already fled deep within the ghostly dimension. She knew that if he really tried he could fly up to 200 mph, so she was a little anxious, since the Booomerang's maximum tracking speed was 10 mph, at most.

However, the search for Danny didn't take as long as she anticipated, and after half an hour she found Phantom huddled on a nearby floating rock. When he heard the telltale sound of the Speeder's engine, he looked up in a panic, but Jazz quickly turned on the intercom to reassure him, "It's just me!"

Seconds later the Booomerang threatened to smack him in the head, and he threw up a hand to catch it.

Almost immediately, his expression placated, but she could that there was still some weariness there. Just like she was afraid of; Maddie's words had really hurt Danny. He was absolutely dejected, and even though avoiding the issue sounded nice in theory, Jazz knew that he needed her as support. She wouldn't let Danny suffer through their Mother's mistake alone, they would reach an understanding with her, allow her to see that Danny's ghost-side wasn't something that needed to be 'fixed'. And then once they reached that point, they could tell her the rest, tell her about Phantom, but only when everyone was ready.

"Why'd you come after me?" Danny spoke, and the microphone outside the Speeder relayed his query. "Leave me alone, Jazz."

"You really think I'm going to leave you alone? Now?" she asked. "After your little disappearing stunt?"

He was silent, and shifted uncomfortably on his rock. For about a minute, neither of them spoke, testing the unpleasant silence, as if to test who would break their previous reality first, see who would talk about what Maddie did.

Danny eventually buckled under the pressure. "She's gonna hurt me. She wants to get rid of Phantom," he blurted.

"She doesn't know anything," Jazz countered. "She hasn't seen enough of your powers to really know that you're not in danger. She cares about you. She was just jumping to conclusions. In fact, I think that your disappearance, maybe... helped her readjust some of her priorities."

"That doesn't change the fact that she still doesn't want a ghost for a son. She said it herself. All I am is her biggest disappointment," he muttered, hopelessly throwing his head down.

It was almost painful for Jazz, because everything in her was telling her to go and comfort him, but she couldn't. She couldn't leave the Specter Speeder, since neither Mom nor Dad had installed an autohover feature yet, meaning that she had to manually keep the vehicle in the air.

"No you're not, Danny," she reassured.

"Yeah, I am, _Jazz_ ," he mimicked. "She hates me now, and everything in my nightmares has come true. And I'll have to stay here _alone_ for the rest of my half-life, because it I ever go back, she'll experiment on me for sure!"

"Not if I can help it," she said.

"You barely stopped her from dragging me down to the lab tonight!" Danny yelled. "Face it Jazz, I'm not safe with her. I'm never going to be safe with someone who can't accept that I'm part-ghost. I mean, she doesn't even know that I'm Phantom, and she hates me _this_ much already. I'm a hopeless case."

"She _never_ said that she hates you," Jazz pointed out.

"That hate was already in her eyes. You didn't see her when I first woke up, Jazz. She was ready to kill me."

"You're misinterpreting things, Danny."

"Yeah? And you know everything since you're little Miss Psychoanalysis?" he asked sarcastically. "I can't go home, ever."

"And what? You're just going to disappear in here forever? Leave Amity Park to fend for itself? Never see Sam or Tucker ever again? Never graduate or go to college?"

"I-"

"You can't disappear forever," she continued.

"Then what do I do!" he screamed. He floated up from his rock and pointed accusingly at the Specter Speeder. "How am I supposed to deal with this!"

She took a deep breath and articulated her words evenly. "You come with me in the Speeder, we go home and sleep, and we talk about it with Mom and in the morning, and start everything afresh."

"That's a horrible plan," he stated.

"It's not," Jazz said. "We can't just run away from her, because if we do that, she has even more reason to suspect that you're just some emotionless husk of ectoplasm. We have to face this, show her that even though you're part-ghost, that you're still the same you. And we'll make it clear that you, as her son, has boundaries."

"That's giving her too much trust, though," Danny looked down again. "What if – what if she _does_ do something-"

"Then you can just disappear again," Jazz said wryly. "You've made it clear that you're capable of that. But Danny... when I don't think that will be a problem. When I... left the house, I'm pretty sure I heard her crying before I came to get you. That at least means she regrets what she did."

"Or maybe she was upset that I'm a nasty ghost," Danny mumbled.

"We know Mom. It isn't like her to cry over a thing that's out of her control, however, she's much more likely to cry over something she directly caused," Jazz paused. "I said some things to make her realize that it was her fault you left – so I have no doubt that she's guilty about it."

"I... you're sure?" there was a certain vulnerability in his voice.

"Ninety-two percent, give or take," she admitted. That seemed to be what made up his mind.

"... Can you turn off the Speeder's ghost shield for a second?"

She obliged, and seconds later Danny was by her side. He turned back human, and she switched the shield back on. The ride back to the portal was spent in silence, and normally, at this time of night both of them would've been fast asleep due to the lack of conversation. Both their minds were occupied with enough paranoia to keep them awake for the entire ride.

When they finally made it back home, it was somewhere around 5 AM, and they realized that Maddie had cried herself to sleep on the couch. They left her there undisturbed, afraid of waking her; neither of them wanted to really try speaking to her again until they were well rested.

The walk upstairs almost felt like some sort of premature acceptance of everything they would have to face tomorrow, realizing that these final hours of sleep would be their last moments of subterfuge; the morning would bring reckoning, and both of them would have to own up to the truth that they had revealed. It was almost surreal, those short moments before reaching their bedroom doors, and both of them reflected on the events that had occurred previously in the evening. However, their sleepy reveries were broken by the startling sound of toilet flushing.

Both children jumped at the unexpected noise, only to spot Jack stumbling out of the bathroom at the opposite end of the hallway. They were both greeted with the feeling of relief.

"Danny? Jazz?" he slurred, questioningly. The hallway was still dark, shrouding him in shadows.

Danny looked at his father cautiously, quietly asking him, "Dad, why're you up?"

Jack steadied himself against the wall, "I think... my fever broke," he mumbled. "Wha-"

"That's good..." Jazz cut him off.

"Goodnight, Dad," Danny said quickly, skittishly.

Wordlessly, Jack saw both of his children disappear into their bedrooms. The encounter puzzled Jack, but he supposed that he was still experiencing fever dreams, and fell back into bed without another thought. Unbeknownst to him, there would be a reckoning in the morning, but in the early hours of dawn, everyone was content with resorting to the temporary escape that sleep provided. Because nobody could run away from their problems forever, secrets were bound to be revealed, and similarly, every fever had to eventually break.


	3. Compromise

The first thing that registered when she woke up is that her back hurt. Like, _really_ hurt. She must've fallen asleep in a weird position. She wasn't exactly in her twenties anymore, per se, she should know better than to fall asleep half-sprawled over the armrest of the couch.

Then slowly, it clicked. She'd fallen asleep on the couch, sobbing into her own arm, far too emotionally spent to move into a more comfortable position. Because Danny had disappeared into thin air, running from her. Because she'd overstepped her boundaries. Because he was afraid of her. Because he was a ghost.

 _And it was all her fault._

When she had fallen asleep ( _coward_ ) Jazz had declared she was going to look for him. Accused Maddie of not doing her job as the parent. The rage in Jazz's eyes had been restrained, hidden behind her mask of duty and rationality - making it much more lethal.

While it was tempting to stay crumpled on the couch forever, ignoring the horrifying scenario that had snaked its way into her family without Maddie ever suspecting anything, she had to get up. It was inevitable. She was never going to be ready for this confrontation ( _you're denying the truth_ ) but she had to do it sometime. And the longer she waited, the further each of her family members drifted away.

The first thing she would do is check if Jazz had returned yet. She wasn't sure where Jazz had gone, but she had said if she wasn't back by morning to call Sam and Tucker… who probably also knew about this entire situation. That revelation in itself stung a bit too; Danny trusted his friends who he met in _middle school_ with the secret of his hybrid nature more than his own _mother_.

Looking at the time, Maddie concluded that it was well past sunrise: 9:04 a.m. Normally Jack would already be in the lab, bumbling around with that large grin of his, but he was still bedridden with fever. She wished that she had him as support, but she couldn't drag him into this right now. She wouldn't even know what to say, and what worse news could you hear when you're sick besides the fact that your son is _dead_?

If Jazz was back, she'd probably be in her room by now. _You need to go upstairs, stop distracting yourself_.

Maddie forced herself to take the first few steps up the staircase, slowly ascending with anticipation. By the time she had reached the top of the stairs, she felt her stomach drop with a combo of relief and guilt. Her mind lagged a few seconds, failing to process the sight before her. Danny was leaning against the doorframe to the bathroom, arms crossed, clearly impatient. Physically, he showed no signs that anything had occurred the night before, but Maddie could read the discomfort in his body language. He was on edge, cautious.

He glared at the bathroom door. "Hurry up, Ja-"

Cutting off suddenly, Danny met Maddie's eyes on him, and suddenly the space between them was suffocating again; all the tension from last night was revived in a single glance.

"M - Mom," he uttered, eyes darting between hers and the door beside him.

Any preparation she should've had for this moment would have been useless. Maddie was dumbstruck, rendered unable to wrack her brain for any appropriate response. She just… allowed herself to slip into a blank slate, staring stupidly at her son. Her obviously _terrified_ son. Those anxious blue eyes… so different from the petrifying green she had seen… yet still the same. He looks so scared of her and it's her fault for creating the circumstances that turned him into this _hybrid_ thing and then she tried to blame him for being what she made him into - a freak, a ghost - and now he's scared more than anything she's going to experiment on him and it's even more messed up since a part of her still wants to experiment on him.

A third voice broke Maddie from her guilty stupor. "Mom? You're awake?" Jazz's voice was different than it had been last night. Today it was calm and scripted, unlike the defensive, accusatory voice from only hours before.

Maddie didn't expect her owned voice to sound so strained when she spoke, "Yeah. Woke up just now."

There was a clicking noise, something being shoved in a drawer, and the door to the bathroom opened. Jazz was donning a green sweater with navy sweats today, hair as silky as usual. Refined, _business-like posture._

"Good," Jazz chirped. "I think we should all talk over breakfast this morning. I can make pancakes if you're not in the mood to, Mom," she offered,

Maddie and Danny's replies were instantaneous, uncannily in sync: "I'm not hungry."

Danny raised a brow at his mother's identical reply, but didn't say much. Jazz, not deterred, gave another artificial smile, "Alright, we can all talk in the living room, then."

There was a pause.

"What about Dad?" Danny asked. "Should we… clue him in…?"

Maddie was about to answer when Jazz beat her to it, "He's sick. I think we should hold out on telling him until he gets better. That way we can resolve the current situation first, too."

Maddie had a feeling _she_ was the current situation.

"I still have to go to the bathroom," Danny added. "Since someone _took so long_."

"My hair takes a long time to shampoo," Jazz shrugged. "Not my fault you didn't want to use Mom and Dad's shower."

For a moment, Maddie thought there might've been a blush on his face, but it receded quickly. "Whatever," Danny scoffed, pushing his way past Jazz into the bathroom.

"Guess it's just me and you," Jazz turned to Maddie once the door was closed. Maddie nodded and they walked to the living room wordlessly.

Jazz sat on the couch while Maddie took a seat in the loveseat opposite of Jazz. There was still an awkward tension hanging over them, and Maddie had no intention of busting _that_ bubble yet. So, instead she allowed Jazz to take the reins the conversation again. Her daughter seemed much more prepared for this anyway; Maddie had no idea how she was doing it.

"So," Jazz tested the waters, "I found Danny in the Ghost Zone last night. I brought him back in the Specter Speeder. We're both alright."

Out of everything, that was the last thing Maddie expected to hear from her daughter. They… _both_ of her children had just simply gone into _anothe_ r _dimension_ without so much as any precaution or regard to the consequences? So many things could have happened - ghosts could have killed both Danny and Jazz and Maddie would never know! The Ghost Zone is the enemy's home territory, humans aren't suited to survive in there!

"That was incredibly dangerous," Maddie lectured. "We don't know what's in there! What were you two thinking?"

"You and Dad don't, but Danny does," Jazz shrugged. "He goes in there all the time. Besides, I imagine that Danny wasn't thinking much when he went in there since he was in flight or fight mode still."

Right… The Ghost Zone was suited for humans… and Danny wasn't one anymore. She had pushed him into running away and that was the first place he fled to in order to feel safe. With each new realization, Maddie gathered a less coherent picture of how innately screwed up their family was.

"Oh, I suppose… that's…"

"We know how to stay safe, Mom," Jazz reassured. "I haven't been in the Ghost Zone many times, but I know not what to do, at least."

Not knowing how to respond, Maddie fell back into silence. Jazz didn't attempt to elicit more conversation from her mother, but Maddie could tell that the cogs in her head were turning, thinking of ways to get her to talk. It was approximately five more minutes (an eternity) before she heard the bathroom door open upstairs and the quiet cadence of footsteps down the stairs. Maddie numbly zoned out, avoiding acknowledging Danny's arrival. He entered the living room much more nervous than earlier and sat beside Jazz.

The silence dragged on for a few more seconds until Jazz coughed, evidently frustrated. "So… how do you feel about Danny being half-ghost, Mom?"

Danny glared at his sister, softly hissing, "A little blunt, don't you think?"

"No one else was saying it," Jazz pointed out. They both turned to Maddie, who was doing her best not to make eye contact.

Of course she'd been expecting something along the lines of that question, but she failed to find the appropriate words. How was she supposed to explain to her children how she felt about this awful, _awful_ secret when she didn't even know herself?

Keeping her gaze trained steadily on the carpet fibers, Maddie pushed herself to speak, "I feel awful that my invention has caused you so much pain, ruined your life and now you have to deal with being _this_. Something… something unknown. And earlier when I couldn't even see that you were yourself, not overshadowed, that was honest to God _terrifying_. I don't want you to hurt, Danny." _And I hate being the one that has hurt you._

"You don't really have to feel bad about that," Danny's voice wasn't as fearful, but it was still wary. "I don't dislike the way I am now."

She shook her head. He was only content with himself because he had accepted that there was no other way for him to be anymore. And in so, he wasn't acknowledging the severity of how tainted he was. "I know that it's hard to hear, but because you're a ghost the nature inside of you must be malicious, obsessive-"

"Inhuman? Freakish?" Danny suggested. Jazz shot him a look, taking his hand and squeezing it. Maddie couldn't bring herself to finish her thought.

Danny didn't look mad, but his voice was unsteady nonetheless. "I've been afraid of those things for a long time. Afraid of the day I'd see that in myself, too far gone to care, but I'm still me. Yeah sure, I might be a ghost, maybe a little obsessive at best, but I _know_ that I'm a good person. Not all ghosts act like the inhuman beasts you perceive them to be, and no matter how much of a ghost I am, I'll always be myself first."

Maddie was desperate. Even if Danny was okay with being a ghost, wasn't being human still preferable? She _had_ to get him to see that. "But don't you want to be normal, human, _alive_? Why are you content with the darkness inside of you?"

Without missing a beat, Jazz countered, "Isn't battling your own darkness the essence of being a human being?"

"Well, yes," Maddie conceded, "but isn't it still better to be human? To be like everyone else?"

"Besides a few powers, how is being a hybrid so different than being human?" Danny challenged.

"... I don't know. That's why I want to know - why I want to… to check-"

But of course, last time she tried to check Danny had ran off and disappeared. But he wasn't giving her much to go off of; how was she supposed to know what being a hybrid entailed when he didn't tell her much?

He sighed, "Mom-"

"I know you're not comfortable with that. I understand that… now," she bit her lip. "But - but you have to throw me a bone here. Give me a basis to understand _what_ you are."

Danny finally let go of Jazz's hand and soothed the back of his neck. Maddie recognized that movement as one of his nervous ticks. "Well," he pondered, thinking hard, "my heartbeat is slow but it's still there. I have to breath, eat, sleep. My body temperature runs about 85F. Whenever I bleed in this form I bleed red with green mixed in. And I have basic ghost powers."

That was a lot to digest. He was still alive, still had a heartbeat and body temperature but they were abnormal. He still needed to intake energy, rest, and respire as well - which were foolhardy indications of being alive. From an outsider's perspective, it seemed that he was on the fine line between being both dead and alive; it was fascinating yet ultimately confusing. That, and there was still something he said that piqued her interest. Something off...

Addressing his slip up, Maddie asked, "... what do you mean 'in _this_ form'?"

Danny froze like a deer caught in headlights and for a moment she doubted that he did need to breathe; it seemed like his breath completely _stopped_ in his throat. "I-..."

Presumably understanding the reason for her brother's petrication, Jazz stepped in. "Danny is still a hybrid, and as a result of his dual DNA, he has a more ghostly form that slightly alters his external appearance. He doesn't transform much though," she added quickly.

Danny nodded numbly at her explanation and Jazz gulped.

"So you can look like a ghost too?" Maddie tried to imagine Danny appearing as a full-ghost and illustrated a mental image of how he appeared last night, just deader. Translucent skin, floating hair, blue lips… and _those_ green eyes. The picture disturbed her and she shuddered, almost wanting to pound it out of her brain by smacking herself.

"Yeah," he answered. He didn't elaborate more.

That added another degree of how inherently inhuman Danny must be, to be able to willfully look dead - yet he was still content with that aspect of himself? She still couldn't comprehend how much internal turmoil he must've gone through to accept what she'd done to him.

"And you're still okay with… this?" She couldn't mask the disbelief in her tone.

"I still feel like myself, even though I'm not human I've accepted this part of me," he admitted. "It was hard at first but now I don't know how I'd live without being part ghost."

 _Live_ without being part ghost, how ironic.

"So... are you okay with this mom?" Jazz followed up. "Do you still want to remove Danny's ghost side?"

Feeling the pressure that this question posed, she ran a hand through her hair in a hopeless attempt to distract from the stress. "Personally, it'll take me some getting used to. I… I'm not sure if I'm okay with the idea that there's a part of you that's unpredictable, but... if you're okay with it, that's what matters. I still want… I still want to run some tests though, make sure that you're correct about what you've told me, that you're not at risk of dropping dead at any minute."

Danny cringed. "I still don't know if I can say yes to that."

"I mean…" Jazz said, "it's not like she's doing it out of morbid curiosity, Danny. I know your fears, your... past experiences… but Mom wants to help you, and since none of us are belittling you as a lab rat, I think it may be worth it to get a better idea of your biology."

He shook his head, "I - I can't. Tests are… experimentation… is something I can't do."

She was hoping he would understand her concern, but apparently this fear ran deeper than she initially perceived. ( _He_ had _believed he was in a nightmare last night_ , an intrusive thought nagged, _a recurring nightmare where you experiment and torture him. How can you be so insensitive about his obvious phobia?_ )

"Danny," she did her best to tread carefully, to explain why these tests were crucial, "it's important to me to understand that you're okay. You trust me that I wouldn't hurt you, right?"

Danny paled, "I do, but… it's still something I can't do. I'm not comfortable with it. I know we established that I'm a ghost… but it doesn't feel nice to be treated like a _specimen_."

He really did have a disturbing idea of what 'tests' Maddie would be running. But supposing her past declarations of what she'd like to do with ghosts in the lab… that reaction wasn't unwarranted.

"It won't be like that, Danny," she reassured. "I'd never treat you like that. It'll be like a doctor's appointment."

"It's just hard…" he placed his head in his hands. "That's a big fear of mine and I've had bad experiences." Jazz stiffened next to him and Maddie sensed that there was more to that 'bad experience' than he was letting on. "But I… guess I can… agree to some tests, not all of them. And I can walk out whenever I want," Danny set his conditions.

"That's fine, I suppose," she nodded. She was genuinely surprised that he was agreeing. "But what experience are you talking about?" she questioned. "Has someone already tried to…?"

He spoke faster than he thought, "It was just another ghost," he decided. "All the other ghosts know about what I am and one of them just wanted to compare me to him. I got out of it mainly unscathed, but it wasn't fun, for sure."

His words took a moment to process. "The ghosts know that you're… a hybrid?" Parental concern gripped Maddie. She hadn't realized that Danny was involved with other ghosts enough for them to pick up on the fact that he was a half-ghost. She could picture that other ghosts would be jealous of his physiology: having access to ghost powers while still being alive. "Have any of them come after you because of that?"

There was recognition in his express. He didn't have to say anything for Maddie to know that the answer was yes. Other ghosts _did_ come after him because he was a hybrid. It was explain some things, the occasional injuries he sported that he attested to 'clumsiness'. Horror dawned on Maddie and she realized that it was too late to wish that Danny wouldn't be hurt by this situation, he'd already been hurt in so many ways and she was just late to the party. No one had clued her in and she felt slightly betrayed.

"Not gonna push it," Jazz intervened, " _buuut_ this would be a good time to segue into that _other_ thing." She gave Danny a pointed look and he glared back.

A different sort of acknowledge became visible in Danny's expression. He leaned closer to Jazz, but Maddie could still hear what he was saying. "We just established peace and now you're trying to make Mom hate me again?" he hissed.

Jazz rolled her eyes, unimpressed. "All I'm saying is the longer you don't tell her, the worse the eventual explosion is going to be."

Maddie picked up on what this was fairly quickly: they had another secret.

"What are you talking about? There's more?"

"Well, you see, Mom," Danny started nervously. The tone of his voice was more on edge than it had been all morning, which worried her immensely. "Jazz mentioned that I have another form where I look more ghost-like?" Where was he going with this? "You _kinda_ already know what I look like in that form."

She pieced what he was saying together,

"What are you saying? That you go around town as a ghost?" then a scarier realization hit her. "Have I… tried to hunt you before?"

"Uh, yeah. A lot," he fidgeted in his seat. "I'm sorta Phantom? And I try to protect the town?" he voice came out strained and squeaky, suggesting it was physically painful to say.

Honestly, with all of the new revelations she'd already had, she'd lost her ability to be shocked by the one she'd had last night. The fact that Danny was Phantom oddly didn't leave as much of a horrifying impact than the fact that he was a ghost. Even though she should be freaking out, she wasn't. Maybe she was still in denial? She'd been in denial all morning, maybe this was just an extension of that. But when she thought about it, it felt right. It pieced everything together and made sense that Danny was Phantom. Because why not? Why not another gigantic secret on top of the one she'd already learned?

All those times that she ranted about capturing Phantom and Danny would look so uncomfortable he'd leave the room, a pensive look masked with boredom. All those times she accused Phantom of kidnapping the mayor, property damage, theft, endangerment, and a specific time she swore to hunt Phantom for endangering Danny for 'stealing his face'... Danny had heard all of those threats. And he would quietly suggest otherwise, that Phantom was _trying_ to do well and that maybe his crimes were just misunderstandings. And she'd chide him for supporting an evil ghost, that he didn't understand that Phantom's hero charade was only that: a charade.

Consequently, there were the times when Phantom felt far too much like a person that she retaliated by convincing herself he was a master manipulator. Floating smugly in city hall, shooting and her and Jack and then looking stricken with horror after realizing what he'd done. Looking small and terrified inside of that metal ghost's net, thrashing to escape his captor. (She'd been so jealous then, she'd wanted to be that captor.) A online video of Phantom with his fans, playfully cracking jokes like a teenager who had forgotten that he wasn't one of the living anymore.

Offering himself to Jack when a bounty was placed on his head, knowing that Jack was depressed because he couldn't adequately capture a ghost. Calls from Mr. Lancer that Danny had ran out in the middle of class, calls from Sam and Tucker frantically asking if Danny was home. Those nights that Danny wouldn't be in his room, but Phantom would be in the sky. And she'd always force herself to wait to hunt Phantom until Danny was home, but by that time Phantom would disappear.

Dark eyebrows, roughly the same height, messy hair that never seemed to stay down. Blue but green eyes, white but black hair. They really were… the _same_.

"Okay," she nodded. It all made sense, and it wasn't like she could argue.

Danny and Jazz shared a pointed look. Danny breathed out slowly, skepticism lingering in the atmosphere of the room.

"Okay? Just… 'okay'?"

Jazz couldn't keep herself from butting in, "Mom, you understood what he meant right? That he's Danny Phantom?"

Maddie was tempted to laugh, but restrained herself. That wouldn't look good on her part. "Yeah, at this point, what else can surprise me, though?"

She observed Danny, who was gaping like a fish. It was really odd, that she could see some of Phantom's features in him now. Like something had been peeled back and an entirely new personality traits were visible. It was half a minute later she realized she'd been staring for a while, and she averted her gaze. That action probably hadn't left the impression that she was accepting him. Because she _was_ trying to.

"True, I gu _ess_?" his voice cracked. "So - uh, are you mad? I know it looks like I've done a lot of stuff…."

Now that he brought it up, she wasn't exactly angry, but mainly concerned. Danny always tried to tell her Phantom was doing good, but those attempts didn't erase his poor actions. "Well you sort of _have_ done stuff," she crossed her arms. "You _kidnapped_ the mayor. And stole all that jewelry and-"

"Danny doesn't have a good relationship with the press," Jazz interrupted. "Both of those incidents were framed." That wasn't much, but it explained some things.

Danny took his explanation from there, "After I got my powers ghosts started attacking. That was back when I was still learning to control myself… trying to figure out what to tell you…. After the first few ghosts, I just knew that I had to do it, since nobody else was. I think since my core was still developing, that's also when my _obsession_ ," he admitted bitterly, "became about protecting people. And so the ghosts figured out pretty quickly I was half human and most of them don't care, besides trying to throw me off of them so they can do what they want in the human world."

This entire other life Danny led really was on another plane than her own. He said he was okay with his life, but she couldn't still understand how he could be. She already knew it, but she felt like she needed to emphasize the fact that it was happening, "So you _do_ fight ghosts."

He shifted awkwardly, "I mean… I know how to deal with them now."

He was constantly in danger, going from moment to the next waiting for his next fight, avoiding ghosts and also ghost hunters. _Her…_. She turned him into a hybrid and hunted him. What kind of mother was she? How could she be so ignorant? This was the true hazard of having her child being a ghost, dealing with her own guilt. This is why she had been in so much denial. She couldn't let this continue. Sure, she couldn't change that Danny was a ghost, probably forever - but she could stop his ghost hunting. Take that burden away from him. Pull him out of the fray, because what would she do when a ghost or another hunter finally succeeded in hurting him? Where could they go from there?

She voiced her concern. "I don't want you to anymore. Fight ghosts."

He responded without hesitation, "I can't do that either. Protecting this city isn't only my obsession, it's my duty. Who else would protect the town next time we're invaded? No offense Mom, but no one else can do what I do."

"But it's not safe for you," she argued. She knew that her protest was probably in vain, she was trying to negotiate Danny's obsession, something that ghost's responded poorly to.

"I know the risks, and I can sacrifice a little of my well being if it means everyone else is alive," he countered predictably.

"Not to mention," Jazz added "but being Phantom allows Danny to maintain his obsession healthily. I've read your notes about when ghosts are depraved from their obsession - would you want that to happen to Danny? In a way this is improving his health."

In her observation, ghosts depraved from their specific fixation rapidly grew ill, depressed, stressed, and violent. After a few days, some ghosts would dissolve completely without anything to pursue. The thought of that happening to Danny was worrisome… but that didn't excuse the fact that he was still getting physically hurt. There was also his lack of daily coordination and suffering grades that now had a attributable source.

"That aside," she leaned forward in her seat, "as your mother, I can't just allow you to run into danger every day."

His face darkened, "So you'd rather Amity Park be overrun by ghosts?"

"No! Of course not." This conversation was going nowhere. "But _you_ come first."

Danny looked taken aback, as if he had forgotten that she's supposed to care for him, does care for him. Just when it felt like Danny was going to respond, Jazz took the floor.

"May I offer a compromise?" she suggested. "A way for Danny to fulfill his obsession, keep the town safe, and have less risk of hurting himself?"

Maddie was open for any scenario where Danny was less likely to get hurt at this point. "I'll hear it."

Danny on the other hand… "I don't think that's possible, Jazz. I haven't exactly had the best luck so far with doing that."

Jazz ignored his doubt and turned to Maddie instead. "You and Dad - once we tell Dad of course - can provide tech support for Danny, assist in ghost hunting, and give him a curfew so he doesn't wake up to fight the Box Ghost five times a night."

Danny deflated at the jab about the Box Ghost but didn't speak up.

"You think that'd help?" Maddie asked.

"Well," Jazz contemplated, taking a moment to poke Danny in the shoulder, "I know that Danny is usually safer when he has a team of people to back him up. He hates it though since he's always afraid we'll get hurt too."

If Maddie hadn't been paying apt attention, she would've missed the flash of green in Danny's eyes. "And you _will_ , that's an awful idea! A curfew won't stop my ghost sense."

Jazz looked at him, not bothering to filter the exasperation in her tone, "Then Mom and Dad will make something to temporarily disable your ghost sense while you sleep."

Maddie backtracked for a moment A 'ghost sense', like another power of his? She'd dabbled in enough technology to disable specific ghost powers, so it probably wouldn't be difficult to calibrate it to Danny based off the results of the tests he agreed to do. Anything to help him get more sleep and avoid danger. "Yeah," she confirmed, "I can do that."

Danny still wasn't convinced, "What if there's a powerful ghost and I'm too asleep to stop it?"

It was noble that he cared so much about the welfare of the town, but at this point he was refusing to accept that they were willing to support him. "Then we'll calibrate our ghost sensors to alert the entire house if a ghost over a certain power level breaks through the portal," Maddie supplied.

"You guys could still get hurt though!" Danny still protested.

Maddie glared, "And if you continue the way you're going, so will you."

He fell silent, trying to find a logical argument to combat her words. Eventually, he sighed and gave in. "I guess we could give it a _try_. I don't like the idea of a curfew though, and if you don't show up in time to stop the threat, I won't hesitate to cut school to fight ghosts. Otherwise… I agree. Compromise?" he offered weakly.

Maddie smiled for the first time that day, feeling a vague sense of ease. She was still terrified about everything she'd learned, but at least Danny was open to try to be more cautious. "Compromise."


End file.
